After months of rumours and deliberations, the legal drama The Good Wife will come to an end with the final run of its seventh season’s episodes. The show, which is aired on RTÉ One, revealed its impending cancellation with an advert during yesterday’s Super Bowl American football game.
CBS, the channel behind the series, announced that the multi award-winning drama will come to an end after the forthcoming nine episodes. The channel then released a statement that included remarks from the CBS executives, the show’s producers, and its lead actress, Juliana Margulies.
It is believed to be the first time that a TV show has announced its finale with a coveted Super Bowl commercial, with the game’s advertising breaks considered almost as important to viewers as the game itself.
Creators and producer Michelle and Robert King said of the show: “The Good Wife has been the creative experience of a lifetime. Collaborating with the finest actors, writers, producers, staff and crew on ‘The Education of Alicia Florrick’ has been a dream.”
The husband-and-wife production team had already stated that they would not return for an eighth season, having always envisioned the show as a seven-season arc:
Telling the story of the Education of Alicia Florrick is the creative dream of a lifetime. It was always our plan to tell it (cont)
— Good Wife Writers (@GoodWifeWriters) February 8, 2016
over 7 seasons. We wanted the story to have a beginning, middle, and an end -- that's the only way actions can have real (cont)
— Good Wife Writers (@GoodWifeWriters) February 8, 2016
consequences -- and it's the reason we had episode titles count up from one word to four, then back down again (it would have been (cont)
— Good Wife Writers (@GoodWifeWriters) February 8, 2016
pretty embarrassing if we were cancelled in our fifth season). We are forever grateful to our fans, cast and crew and CBS. We're (cont)
— Good Wife Writers (@GoodWifeWriters) February 8, 2016
excited to celebrate the final 9 eps and bring the story to its natural conclusion. Here's a spoiler: the last episode will be (cont)
— Good Wife Writers (@GoodWifeWriters) February 8, 2016
called "End." Thank you for a GREAT ride!! R & M pic.twitter.com/TXIcaPl93T
— Good Wife Writers (@GoodWifeWriters) February 8, 2016
Margulies, who has won a Golden Globe and two Emmys for the role as a beleaguered politician’s wife who returns to work when her husband is imprisoned after a scandal, had already tipped fans off that the show might be ending.
In the CBS statement, the actress said: “Being a part of The Good Wife has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my career. As an actress and a producer, it has been an absolute honour to be a part of a series that, throughout seven years, never settles on being just good ... but always strived to be extraordinary.”
The Good Wife launched in 2009 to considerable critical acclaim, seen as one of the ever-decreasing number of broadcast television shows that was able to compete against the dominance of cable and streaming services. Despite its critical following, the show consistently struggled with moderate ratings and was close to cancellation on a number of occasions.
The finale of The Good Wife will air in the US on Sunday, May 8th.
